Ethan Allen capsize: Lake George

Here's a link to today's New York Times article on the capsize of the Ethan Allen:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/03/nyregion/03boat.html?th&emc=th
(you might have to create an account for yourself, but it's very quick & painless).

Presumably the M/V Ethan Allen was certified to carry passengers under Subchapter "T". Does anyone know where further information can be found concerning:

• Was a simplified stability test, as called for at http://www.washingtonwatchdog.org/documents/cfr/title46/part178.html#178.330 ever performed?
• Was the vessel certified for 49 passengers? On what basis?
• Are the calculations available, perhaps using a Freedom of Information Act request?
• Were engine vents located below the gunwale? For the purpose of the test, was the freeboard taken to the gunwale or to the vents?
• Could the engine compartment have flooded by backflooding the exhaust?
• Will there be an investigation?
• Which Coast Guard Marine Safety Office has jurisdiction?

Note concerning my background: I was involved in preparing Coast Guard certification related materials in 1992-1993 for a similar boat in Miami, the "Ruddy Duck", which served as a water taxi to Fisher Island. My recollection is that it was certified for somewhere between 29 and 40 passengers (I'm thinking it was 29). Also, I think we made a modification to raise the engine vents.

 

no further info on your questions, just on more:

.what is the pilots story?

 

It sounds, by reading the article, like bad luck. Full load of passengers, many on one side looking at the shore, Captain sees a sudden need to turn to the side that has few people on it, over she goes in 2 or 3 seconds. Few cruise Captains maintain a balanced load. Fact of life.

 

There was one report that the bow was seen to be riding low in the water. But I have not seen that verified, or any more details.

Kelly Cook

 

To be certified by the USCG this boat was supposed to pass a stability TEST.

Sand bags , of 150lbs per person , for desired load are line up against ONE side of the vessel.
The vessel is certified to the number of 150lb pax that reduce the freeboard by half.

The story of a large boats wake may be what ATE the other half of the freeboard.

FAST FRED

 

According to the cited article the boat was not Coast Guard inspected, but rather certified by the New York parks department. If Lake George is not navigable waters capable of interstate commerce, Coast Guard doesn't have jurisdiction.

 

The most important question is, for what task the boat was designed for: are there any pictures, and can somebody come up with some drawings?
A boat can capsize in a tight turn at high speed if the distributed weights are unfavourable high above the waterline; why was it necessary to avoid a passing by boat's wake?

We cannot give an answer just based on an article in a daily - those reports are mostly "colored" and often amateurish and inadequate.

Don't jump on any conclusion(s) without knowing the exact details, although, it is a strange and sad occurence.

CDBarry's comment might be right - in Europe, any vessel that carries paid passengers should be subject to a strain of safety-measurements and related tests, unimportant on what sort of waters.

 

Here is an article from New York Times. (

Commercial Boats Overseen by a Small Office
By SEWELL CHAN and AL BAKER

The roughly 275 commercial boats that operate in New York State waters - from sightseeing-cruise vessels on the Finger Lakes to freight-towing tugboats on the Hudson River - are overseen by a small state office that is charged with licensing, inspecting and certifying a wide array of watercraft central to the state's tourism and freight industries.

Life jackets must be provided, but passengers are not required to wear them. Boat operators have to demonstrate "a thorough knowledge of seamanship" and renew their licenses annually, but a recertification examination is required only once every 10 years.

The boats are inspected once a year, yet unannounced visits rarely if ever occur. There are three inspectors for the entire state, part of a staff of about a dozen in the regulatory office: the marine unit of the State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.

Federal investigators will be exploring this oversight system in the coming months as they delve into the deadly capsizing of a sightseeing boat on Lake George on Sunday, trying to determine whether safety rules were violated and, perhaps, whether the system itself is adequate to ensure passenger safety. Yesterday, the National Transportation Safety Board began an inquiry into the accident, which killed 20 elderly passengers.

But already, some elected officials and boating-safety experts were saying that several areas of regulation - licensing of captains, inspections of vessels and the rules governing life jackets - needed to be re-examined.

"Those are issues we're going to be discussing, certainly," said Assemblywoman Teresa R. Sayward, a Republican whose district includes Warren County, where the accident occurred. "Unfortunately, it takes a tragedy to start looking at regulation sometimes."

Assemblyman Roy J. McDonald, a Republican whose district includes the northeastern shore of the lake, said: "Water safety has been underregulated, and I blame the Legislature, as opposed to the enforcement agencies. In the past, the public has asked, 'Why do we need four or five sheriff's boats on the lake?' Now you know why."

Much is still unclear about the sunken boat, the Ethan Allen, and its pilot. State officials said yesterday that they had turned over copies of inspection and licensing reports to the federal safety board but declined to release them publicly, saying they would wait for the investigation to be completed.

However, a picture of the boat's operations emerged from public records and interviews.

The Ethan Allen, a 38-foot vessel with a white fiberglass hull, was built in 1966 by Dyer Boats of Warren, R.I., a leading builder of power boats, yachts and dinghies. It was licensed for tours and dinner cruises, with a capacity of 50 people, including 48 passengers and the vessel's captain.

Under the license, an additional crew member must be on board if there are 21 or more passengers, but even though 47 passengers were aboard on Sunday, the pilot was the only crew member.

The Ethan Allen passed its last inspection on May 20, but state officials declined to say whether any deficiencies were cited at the time. Officials at Shoreline Cruises, which has six cruise boats including the Ethan Allen registered with the State Department of Motor Vehicles, declined to answer any questions about the operation of the boat.

The boat's captain, Richard Paris, 74, was a New York state trooper from 1956 to 1981. He received his master's license in 1986, has renewed it each year since then and took a recertification examination in 1996, state officials said.

Boat operators must pass a practical exam, which requires them to undock a boat and steer it safely, among other tasks. Operators are also tested on their knowledge of fire and emergency drills - and on what to do if someone falls overboard.

Officials said they knew of no past problems with Mr. Paris's performance. "We have no indication that he was anywhere but where he should have been," said Larry Cleveland, the Warren County sheriff, who spoke with the captain shortly after the accident. "In fact, we believe he was maneuvering to get himself through these waves, or wakes, or whatever we're dealing with."

After any marine accident on waterways under federal jurisdiction, unlike Lake George, the Coast Guard has the operator tested for alcohol or drugs, said Anthony Palmiotti, director of continuing education at the State University of New York Maritime College, in the Bronx.

Sheriff Cleveland said he did not ask Mr. Paris to take such a test because there was no reasonable cause to do so. "If I had had any suspicion whatsoever," he said, "I would have made that call and made sure he was tested."

The state's marine unit, the Bureau of Marine and Recreational Vessels, has limited resources to conduct inspections beyond its regular licensing and certification process, said John M. Prenderville, who worked at the parks office from 1975 until 1995, when he retired as a deputy commissioner. The bureau distributes money to counties and towns to pay for boat-safety training and police boats, he said.

In addition to the oversight by the parks office, the Lake George Park Commission - a panel created in 1961 to oversee the lake and surrounding forests - is supposed to oversee the use of watercraft. It has a small law-enforcement arm.

The use of life jackets, or other floatation devices, will almost certainly be a focus of the safety board's investigation. Few, if any, passengers on the Ethan Allen wore the devices.

The use of flotation devices was the subject of a symposium the safety board sponsored in August 2004.

"The whole issue of life preservers is something we have to talk about," Ms. Sayward said. "Whenever I get on a boat, they always tell you where they are, but the issue is, how do you get them? Unless you had a very slow leak, it would be difficult to get all of them out and onto people."

About 80 percent of all deaths in recreational boating could be prevented if life jackets were worn, said Charles A. Sledd, president of the National Association of State Boating Law Administrators.

At the very least, all tour boats should give a safety talk and explain to passengers, before the boat undocks, that they have the option of wearing a life jacket, said Virgil H. Chambers, the executive director of the National Safe Boating Council, an advocacy group in Manassas, Va.

 

This is a tragic occurrence, but I can already see the fallout. MAKE PFDs MANDATORY will be the battle cry, to which I say PHOOEY! I am a grown adult and can make my own educated decisions about my own safety. I also deck hand on a party boat offshore of Port Aransas, so I know first hand that no one wants to wear them anyway. As the article states, we give a safety briefing before departure showing the locations of PFDs as well as how to don them. Beyond that, it's up to each individual if they should wear them, as it should be. I've seen one person put one on all summer. Don't let this tragedy be a tool for the safety nazis to slap one more regulation on us all. We have too much allready.

 

It is my understanding that there were no required crewmen aboard this vessel on this trip. Only the pilot and not the additional 2 crewmen. I've heard conflicting reports on this but that's the word I have.
The company has a few (4 or 5 ) other boats and they have all been ordered not to leave the dock until things are straightened out.

 

It is truley tragic & my heart goes out to the loved ones who have lost those dear to them.

 

I share the last sentiment. I've spent a signifigant portion of my working life on stability issues in order to prevent accidents like this one, and I have strong feelings about it.

I think the press is focusing on the wrong issue. These people died in the main not due to lack of an additional crewmember or lack of life jackets. They died from lack of sufficient stability. This is a technical issue, and it is the responsibility of naval architecture as a profession to provide sound guidance as to what constitutes a safe boat (and standards for safe loading & operation within a clear design envelope).

Over the last decade or so there has been a move to simplify stability screening for passenger vessels under 65 feet of non-extreme design. The simplified test is 46 CFR 178.330 in the United States code of Federal Regulations. I have not used this test in its most current form. Has anyone else out there? Is it valid, and does it yield an appropriate minimum value? WOULD THE ETHAN ALLEN HAVE PASSED loaded with 47 adult passengers?

I'm seriously considering submitting a Freedom of Information Act request to find out if such a test was performed on the Ethan Allen or a sistership. I'm happy to hear that the Transportation Department is now testing a sistership and asking the technical questions, and I hope that what is learned can be incorporated into 46 CFR 178.330 in such a way that it is still simple, but is further clarified, can be consistantly applied, and can guide designers of both recreational and passenger boats, especially with respect to maximum capacity (relative to intact stability).

 

here's a link to an article in a Toronto paper. they cite heavier passengers but this might be even more significant (from the article):

"Investigators also were to look at excess weight from recent changes made to the boat, such as the addition of a larger engine and replacing a canvas canopy with a wood-Fiberglas design."

here's the link:

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Co...ageid=968332188492&col=968705899037&t=TS_Home

 

I saw a photo of the ship on TV this morning and her empty free board looked like 12" to 18". Can not believe that. But she looked low and squatty. A 74 year old pilot? What are the probabilities he will have reflex and decision altering medicins? I am 68 and have removed any ideas of being a volunteer boat captain due to the high risk of light headiness. Most public conveyences are operated by people with problems. They work for less money.

 

I second that. Hopefully there will be a full investigation into this. At the moment the media are relying mostly on speculation. This incident reminds me of one in B.C. earlier this year involving a chartered houseboat that capsized. That one was due to gross overloading; I doubt the cause here is so simple. Hopefully we'll all learn some lessons from this....